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8wk old and sleep issues

hi, i am so frustrated at the moment with sleep! want to create a harmonious sleep life with my baby girl, but not sure what I'm doing wrong.
my 8 wk dd is not going to sleep until midnight or beyond every night, and not really doing long stretches yet, or staying down all night...i mean amidst feedings. OK we have not been very consistent with any kind of a routine, but we are at least at home and slowing down putting DS1 and DS2 to bed then trying to get her to bed for the night about 8 or 9 each night... and the the mayhem begins. We start at 9
she is literally not down till 12... seems like no matter what we do. I spent nights only in the bedroom, rocking chair, then wore her in the carrier, then just gave up trying one particular thing, and now rock, bounce, cook, or walk around all in the
same night. Daily She naps like a new born... a long morning, nap then a long afternoon one and then sleepy on and off till night time. Then she has a very fussy period anywhere from 7-12, we give her gripe water in the evening and it seems to help and then she will fall asleep and we put her down, she wakes up five mins later screaming, again and again all evening!!! till she finally gives in about 12, then like last night only slept a 3 hr stretch before waking up and fussing and feeding for a couple of hours... slept another 1 or 2 on my chest and was up again repeating the fussiness... I am exhausted. Yes I know sleep is an issue for every newborn, but do any of you see anything obvious I could be doing wrong? We bed share, and
she usually sleeps in a side car for her first stretch.... if there is one (stretch)!!!
Should I be worried about cutting down her naps, nap timing, or big bedtime routine ALREADY??? Any advice would help thanks!

Re: 8wk old and sleep issues

Who are you and how did you end up with my daughter?

Seriously, this sounds EXACTLY like my second kid. We also had the sleeping-screaming behavior at 5 minute intervals all evening long. And we'd often get a second bout of fussiness and wakefulness at around 4 in the morning. Yay!

I wish there were something that I could point to which fixed the problem... But really the only thing that worked was time. Hang in there, mama!

Re: 8wk old and sleep issues

I sounds like colic, I give DD3 BIO GAIA, it's a probiotic, it helped us those first few weeks. I decided to stop giving it to her and suddenly she is a terrible sleeper. So I started again two days ago...we'll see. I am not expecting for a 3 month old to sleep a lot though, just a few stretches but since we cut her the BIOGAIA, she wasn't even giving me any stretch and she is awake at some point in the middle of the night for about 2 hours.

Re: 8wk old and sleep issues

OK usually I am the last one to suggest this...but any possibility there is a allergy? My co-Leader whose child turned out to have a severe gluten intolerance absolutely could not sleep. We are talking a much older baby when it was discovered, but, just a thought.

I hate the idea that baby's get their nights and days "mixed up", I think it's silly usually, as babies naturally do need to eat and be cared for throughout the night to some degree for some time. But maybe it's happening in this case in a way... I assume from your siggy you have a busy household. Maybe baby can sleep better during daytime hubub and in the still of the night wants company. This is not to say cut down her naps neccesarily, not sure if that is even possible as if a baby wants to sleep they will sleep-I am not sure what the solution is in that case, just a thought.

Re: 8wk old and sleep issues

Have you tried putting her down earlier than 8 or 9 pm? Honestly all my babies needed early bedtimes as babies- like 6:30 pm or 7pm. Or it really messed up their sleep. Yeah of course you expect to be doing night time parenting, but I agree it is odd that she's up so late. Sorry mama that would be really rough!

Mama to five beautiful kids- 9, 8, 3, 2 and currently nursing our new baby girl born 1/20/2013

"It should not be necessary to tell reasonably intelligent mammals to suckle and not dismember their neonates." ~Susan Blustein

Re: 8wk old and sleep issues

One of mine was and is like that. He is up until 11 PM Still. At three. If he gets a nap, it could be even later. His early pattern was just like this. It did get better, in that the screaming went away.

A few things that also helped:
Babywear before the fussy period starts. He seemed to get overwhelmed and angry, so baby wearing kept him insulated from all of that.
One parent takes over baby, the other puts the older children to bed. The one with the baby was me, and we would turn down the lights, nurse, cuddle and I held him until I was ready to go to bed. Then I handed him off for an hour or two of sleep on my own while DH held baby, then he would bring him to me when he was hungry, and we nursed back to sleep.
We started putting the older kids to bed earlier, so I could start the baby's bedtime routine earlier.

Re: 8wk old and sleep issues

My LO is doing something similar, he is 14 weeks but was born 6 weeks early so his corrected age is 8 weeks. He will not go down for the night until midnight or 1 am. Once he is down though he typically sleeps for a good stretch...he will sleep until 9 am or so, but sometimes wakes for a feeding around 5 am and then goes back to sleep for another 4 hrs or so. I do his bedtime bath at the same time every evening, have tried doing it earlier and getting him down earlier but if he does go down earlier ( say 730ish) he sleeps as though napping until about 9 and then wakes up wide awake for hours. I would really like to get him on an earlier bedtime but havent had a bit of luck.